The CHRB has confirmed the death of 4-year-old Weekendwithbernie in a breakdown/euthanasia at Santa Anita this past Saturday. The Doug O’Neill-trained horse was coming off a last of 12 just six days prior. Abused. Dead.
Also from the Santa Anita minutes, four anonymous horses were termed “deceased” for the week ending March 29; at Los Alamitos, three more. This is horseracing.
And the carnage continues…unabated. It is hard to believe that I can despise this industry more with each passing day but that is exactly what happens. Oh, and Mr. Drug O’Neill is, once agin, involved. He disgusts me. Of course, they all do.
Mary,
I feel the same way you do. With each passing day, I grow more and more angry. The world would be a much better place without the likes of these parasite trainers, complacent owners, and an industry that is rotten to the core. Marlene Thornley
“Anonymous” dead horses? That is interesting……. perhaps they don’t want these 4 horses investigated and exposed. Therefore they choose not to name them. Something to hide?
Carolyn McDonald, sure makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Without the horses’ names we cannot learn their trainers or owners or their prior race records. If the Jockey Club Injury Database that the racing industry likes to brag about reports nearly all the horses that died, why don’t they let you see the names of the horses? I have no doubt that Patrick would be able to add quite a few names to that list but they don’t want to know them because they don’t want to count them.
No transparency as they promised publicly after the Congressional hearing on the welfare of the racehorses back in 2008. We’re still waiting nearing 7 years later for that transparency.
Drug O’ Neill…bet he’s all broken up over the death of his horse. Explaining these deaths to the public is such an ordeal for them, I’m certain…such a hassle.
RIP Weekendwithbernie. Your abuse is over.
Makes me sick.
I saw Weekendwithbernie break his leg at Santa Anita. Then I saw the green screens come out. It was very disturbing. Like many people, I was I totally ignorant to how cruel and evil this “sport” really is. After seeing this incident I had to lookup how often this happens and I was shocked at what I found. These animals live their whole lives being tortured and abused. The whole “sport” is a big exercise in animal cruelty.
Thank you, Ted. Please help spread the word.
Patrick, do you have a full-page run-down on all the deaths at Santa Anita? Some of my friends are going to a fundraiser there tomorrow, Sunday, April 19, and I would like to give them some information.
I would appreciate your reply as soon as you can.
Thank you so much for all you do!
Lucy
Hi Lucy. In response to my FOIA request, the CHRB said that the identities of dead racehorses “is not considered public information that the CHRB is able to provide.” That said, I count 55 “deceased” in the 2014 Santa Anita stewards minutes. Of course, there are more we will never know about. But you can safely say “at least” 55 killed at Santa Anita in 2014. Here is my post from January.